After a long silence, Landmarq returned in 2012 with their first studio album in fourteen years — an expansive, warmly produced double-CD set fronted by Tracy Hitchings, and widely received as a genuine comeback.

The short version

This 2012 record is Landmarq’s comeback studio album, their first in fourteen years after 1998’s ‘Science of Coincidence’. It reunites a five-piece built around Tracy Hitchings on lead vocals, with Uwe D’Rose on guitar, Steve Gee on bass, Mike Varty on keyboards and Dave Wagstaffe on drums. Spread across a main disc and a bonus disc, it runs about ninety minutes and leans into long, developing pieces, from the twelve-minute ‘Turbulence (Paradigm Shift)’ to the sixteen-minute ‘Calm Before the Storm’. ProgArchives reviewers give it the highest average of any Landmarq studio album and call it a great comeback, consistently enjoyable and among the band’s most polished work. For many it is the strongest entry in the catalogue.

The Long-Awaited Comeback

By 2012 Landmarq had been quiet as a recording band for over a decade. This record broke that silence, and it did so with a settled line-up: Tracy Hitchings on lead vocals alongside founder-members Uwe D’Rose on guitar and Steve Gee on bass, with Mike Varty on keyboards and Dave Wagstaffe on drums. Varty had joined in the mid-2000s, making this the first Landmarq studio album to feature him. Reportedly given more time and resources than any previous Landmarq session, the group spread the results across a main disc and a bonus disc, bringing in several guest instrumentalists.

The sound

This is expansive, polished neo-prog: a big, carefully produced double set that gives every idea room to develop. ProgArchives reviewers describe it as a great comeback and consistently enjoyable, and the band itself has framed it as its most polished and considered work, with a sound the group’s keyboard player has called more mellow than much modern prog. Tracy Hitchings’ lead is central, ranging from quiet, intimate passages to the sweeping choruses of the longer tracks, while Uwe D’Rose’s guitar and Mike Varty’s keyboards trade the melodic leads. The arrangements are fuller than on the earlier albums.

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The songs

‘Personal Universe’ is one of the record’s most immediate pieces — a melodic, mid-length highlight that was chosen to represent the album on a prog magazine cover disc. ‘Mountains of Anglia’ stretches past eight minutes, pairing a strong vocal line from Tracy Hitchings with the guitar-and-keyboard interplay that runs through the set. The sixteen-minute ‘Calm Before the Storm’ is the main disc’s epic finale, a multi-part piece that gathers the album’s themes and gives the band room to build across several movements. Together the three show the range on offer, from concise melody to full long-form ambition.

Reception and legacy

On ProgArchives this 2012 album carries the highest average rating of any Landmarq studio record, around 3.7 out of five across dozens of ratings. Reviewers there widely treat it as a great comeback — consistently enjoyable and among the band’s most polished work — after their long recording gap. One feature went as far as calling it the strongest album of their career. The main reservation, as with the band’s smoother records, is that its mellow, unhurried approach can feel light on drama.

The verdict

This 2012 record is for listeners who like their neo-prog long-form, melodic and richly produced, and who enjoy an album that takes its time. As a comeback it is assured, and it makes a strong case as the most polished thing Landmarq have done, with Tracy Hitchings’ lead vocal at the centre and the band’s most expansive arrangements around it. Newcomers curious about the Hitchings-fronted era could start here or with ‘Science of Coincidence’; longtime followers tend to rate this among the band’s best.

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